It was a curious thing to note today. Down at LSU....in Louisiana...the campus had a bit of excitement today. Some guy (Graduate communications student Benjamin Haas) had decided that a US flag had to be burned to say something personal about the killing of bin Laden and the evil American government.
Unlike situations that occur in California....this is Louisiana, where I spent three years of my life. Flag burning...at any campus in the state....is generally not tolerated very well.
The school had given Haas permission to burn the flag....but since he lacked a burn permit.....a key factor in a state that has grass fires left and right during leaf season....he was told burning wasn't going to be allowed by the local county.
Then a problem came up with students who eventually decided to chase the flag burner dude...even with campus security around him. Things didn't go well....as kids shouted: "USA, USA".
At this point of reading up on the event....I kinda stopped and paused.
It's a strange thought process. When it comes to flag burning....you just don't see IHOP managers, Dairy Queen employees, 7-11 guys, folks on welfare, folks who get food stamps, or roofers ever attempting to burn a flag.
So I continued on with this thought process. I've never seen a guy who was a Ford mechanic, or a guy who fixed lawn mowers, or a gal who was a beautician.....who might be willing to burn a flag.
In fact.....I came to realize that it's generally always college students from fancy colleges....not technical colleges or community colleges. You'd never see some 1st year student at a Bible College doing something like this. You wouldn't see an electrical engineer doing something like this.
Generally, the flag burners are all punks who settled in for a four-year degree deal....without much engineering tied to their degree. If it was....they'd be asking themselves questions....which the other flag burners would hate.
In the entire history of America....I doubt if a single septic tank salesman has ever burned a single flag. The same could be said for farmers, diesel mechanics, and blacksmiths.
This might leave you with a long pause in thinking....if you got that point of wondering about things.
Just something to think about.
Thursday, 12 May 2011
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Fall is in the Air
This week....barely making any notice in the papers after bin Laden and various four-star news....there's this one piece....the federal government sent a letter to the BCS bowl boys, and asked directly why no play-off situation is utilized.
Naturally, the head guy of the BCS bowl boys responded in an direct manner....why would the federal government care?
For anybody from Bama.....this is a sore topic of sorts. On any given day in November....at least one out of every five Bama guys is openly talking about the bowl selection process and this ranks in the top three topics of the day.
This federal letter came from the Justice Department, and hints of antitrust laws. The problem for the BCS folks....is that almost every other sport within college sports.....allows for some kind of play-off situation. The Justice Department is likely moving toward a confrontation.
The problem here is that you've got 34 bowl games now organized, and another two about to be created (the Cure Bowl out in Orlando, FL and the Christmas Bowl out in LA).
This was real simple back when there were ten bowls (up until 1970). Then folks started to add various bowls and confuse folks. Today, you have very marginal teams which get invited to play in the Music City Bowl (in Nashville of course).
You've got thirty-four cities which have a money-maker and know precisely about profits and the influence of forty thousand folks arriving from five states away to play in some half-ass marginal Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana. None of these thirty-four cities want the federal government involved in this mess. In their mind....it's bad enough as it exists right now.
A playoff system? You could have some #3-ranked Bama team in the first round....meeting up in San Diego against a #8-ranked team.....and getting beat in the first round. You could actually end up with the #3-ranked team playing the #12-ranked team for the national championship. The comical thing is that you'd spread this out over six weeks.....going from early December to almost the third-week of January to ensure some fairness to the mess, and toss in various potential injuries to just screw this up more.
The heart of this matter is that you can draw up a list of winners from the twenty colleges in America....and typically, it's two of the twenty that always appear. I admit in the past five years.....Boise State has kinda shocked folks and they really are in a huff about not getting to the number one ranking. I would imagine part of this discussion centers entirely on Boise State.
The sad thing is that if you take away this mess.....take away the Monday morning rankings appearing in USA Today and the local news....what would guys have to talk about for twelve weeks in the fall? For some folks....this ranking business (while fairly fake) is their life and passion. Guys exist in Gainesville and Huntsville to objectively discuss rankings and how one bad play led to their team being dumped from #16 and lodged to #20. Suddenly, they speak of their chances of going to Gator Bowl as ten percent, and now they try to have some positive words to say over their chances of going to the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl.
For some reason....I kinda see this Justice Department involvement as being something of a double-edged sword. There's probably a pair of young rookie lawyers working for the Justice Department who've been given this task....and I can imagine this odd discovery at some point in the process....both rookie lawyers grew up in Boise, and attended Boise State University. Yes, it would be an odd thing.....if you ponder upon it a while. What are the odds?
Naturally, the head guy of the BCS bowl boys responded in an direct manner....why would the federal government care?
For anybody from Bama.....this is a sore topic of sorts. On any given day in November....at least one out of every five Bama guys is openly talking about the bowl selection process and this ranks in the top three topics of the day.
This federal letter came from the Justice Department, and hints of antitrust laws. The problem for the BCS folks....is that almost every other sport within college sports.....allows for some kind of play-off situation. The Justice Department is likely moving toward a confrontation.
The problem here is that you've got 34 bowl games now organized, and another two about to be created (the Cure Bowl out in Orlando, FL and the Christmas Bowl out in LA).
This was real simple back when there were ten bowls (up until 1970). Then folks started to add various bowls and confuse folks. Today, you have very marginal teams which get invited to play in the Music City Bowl (in Nashville of course).
You've got thirty-four cities which have a money-maker and know precisely about profits and the influence of forty thousand folks arriving from five states away to play in some half-ass marginal Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana. None of these thirty-four cities want the federal government involved in this mess. In their mind....it's bad enough as it exists right now.
A playoff system? You could have some #3-ranked Bama team in the first round....meeting up in San Diego against a #8-ranked team.....and getting beat in the first round. You could actually end up with the #3-ranked team playing the #12-ranked team for the national championship. The comical thing is that you'd spread this out over six weeks.....going from early December to almost the third-week of January to ensure some fairness to the mess, and toss in various potential injuries to just screw this up more.
The heart of this matter is that you can draw up a list of winners from the twenty colleges in America....and typically, it's two of the twenty that always appear. I admit in the past five years.....Boise State has kinda shocked folks and they really are in a huff about not getting to the number one ranking. I would imagine part of this discussion centers entirely on Boise State.
The sad thing is that if you take away this mess.....take away the Monday morning rankings appearing in USA Today and the local news....what would guys have to talk about for twelve weeks in the fall? For some folks....this ranking business (while fairly fake) is their life and passion. Guys exist in Gainesville and Huntsville to objectively discuss rankings and how one bad play led to their team being dumped from #16 and lodged to #20. Suddenly, they speak of their chances of going to Gator Bowl as ten percent, and now they try to have some positive words to say over their chances of going to the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl.
For some reason....I kinda see this Justice Department involvement as being something of a double-edged sword. There's probably a pair of young rookie lawyers working for the Justice Department who've been given this task....and I can imagine this odd discovery at some point in the process....both rookie lawyers grew up in Boise, and attended Boise State University. Yes, it would be an odd thing.....if you ponder upon it a while. What are the odds?
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Keep Moving Along
Its interesting to watch the various debate topics of today.
Orders on Osama to take him.....orders on Osma to kill him.
Osama's wife killed.....Osama's wife merely shot in the leg.
Osama had a gun at bedside.....Osama had no weapons.
Sixteen percent of America believes in no birth certificate for the President.....Sixteen percent of the Muslim world believes Osama is still living.
Pakistan knew little to nothing about the million-dollar compound.....Pakistan had to know everything about the million-dollar compound.
War with Islam all but over.....War with Islam will intensify over next month.
It's best to describe the news of the day as somewhat comical. If I could have imagined ten years ago the details of the day after Osama was shot.....I could not have come near the amount of high school-style reporting going on.
I suspect by the end of the week that Doctor Phil will interview several of the neighbors to Osama bin Laden and treat them for bin Laden-ism and send them to some two week rehab center in Colorado Springs. I suspect that Oprah will interview some random Navy Seals and make them cry on camera at pictures of bunnies being mistreated. I'd even suspect that VP Joe Biden might admit to the public that the entire plan was his to start with.
It's best to simply keep moving and hope that bigger news by Friday consumes this. I'd suggest Charlie Sheen admitting his entire act over the past one hundred days was bogus, and that might be big enough to end the Osama story.
Orders on Osama to take him.....orders on Osma to kill him.
Osama's wife killed.....Osama's wife merely shot in the leg.
Osama had a gun at bedside.....Osama had no weapons.
Sixteen percent of America believes in no birth certificate for the President.....Sixteen percent of the Muslim world believes Osama is still living.
Pakistan knew little to nothing about the million-dollar compound.....Pakistan had to know everything about the million-dollar compound.
War with Islam all but over.....War with Islam will intensify over next month.
It's best to describe the news of the day as somewhat comical. If I could have imagined ten years ago the details of the day after Osama was shot.....I could not have come near the amount of high school-style reporting going on.
I suspect by the end of the week that Doctor Phil will interview several of the neighbors to Osama bin Laden and treat them for bin Laden-ism and send them to some two week rehab center in Colorado Springs. I suspect that Oprah will interview some random Navy Seals and make them cry on camera at pictures of bunnies being mistreated. I'd even suspect that VP Joe Biden might admit to the public that the entire plan was his to start with.
It's best to simply keep moving and hope that bigger news by Friday consumes this. I'd suggest Charlie Sheen admitting his entire act over the past one hundred days was bogus, and that might be big enough to end the Osama story.
Monday, 2 May 2011
The Most Interesting Thing
I spent around forty-five minutes today reading the news on Osama. There are various pieces to this operation which are curious notes....but there is one fascinating piece.
This house that he was found in....isn't just a house. It's a one-million dollar mansion in Pakistan. We are talking about a million-dollar estate with 18-foot walls surrounding the place and almost no windows. This would all be a bit odd. But here is the unusual piece.....here in a million-dollar estate....they burned their garbage.
I would imagine that you could drive around Pakistan and maybe over the whole country.....find around 250 million-dollar estates. If you were looking for one with almost no windows and 16-foot walls....you'd probably find less than three of them. But finding a million-dollar mansion where folks burn all their garbage? No....you just won't find that.
You can go off to France, Germany, Japan, and a dozen countries where you'd find million-dollar estates....and you just won't find anybody that burns their trash. It's always picked up.
So I go back to my Bama days. My dad, and almost everyone around where I grew up in the 1970s....burned their garbage. You'd have a 55-gallon drum and toss a bag in....light it up, and then watch it burn. After two months of this....the drum would be full and you'd tie it onto the truck and dump it at the local garbage dump.
This was a regular habit of my dad up until the 1980s.....when the locals are all got peppy about grass fires, and then it kinda got to be a bad thing. Yes, I can remember twenty-odd grass fires starting and having to rush out and douse them with a hose before they became issues.
So I can kinda identify with the Obama folks here. They probably had this habit from the Africa years and just kept up the trend....even when they were living in a one-million dollar estate. Course, he also probably didn't want anyone ever reading his fantasy letters to some lusty gal in Bossier City, or gazing at his credit card information which had details over his 1-900 chats with a service out of Detroit. So I can understand things like this.
This house that he was found in....isn't just a house. It's a one-million dollar mansion in Pakistan. We are talking about a million-dollar estate with 18-foot walls surrounding the place and almost no windows. This would all be a bit odd. But here is the unusual piece.....here in a million-dollar estate....they burned their garbage.
I would imagine that you could drive around Pakistan and maybe over the whole country.....find around 250 million-dollar estates. If you were looking for one with almost no windows and 16-foot walls....you'd probably find less than three of them. But finding a million-dollar mansion where folks burn all their garbage? No....you just won't find that.
You can go off to France, Germany, Japan, and a dozen countries where you'd find million-dollar estates....and you just won't find anybody that burns their trash. It's always picked up.
So I go back to my Bama days. My dad, and almost everyone around where I grew up in the 1970s....burned their garbage. You'd have a 55-gallon drum and toss a bag in....light it up, and then watch it burn. After two months of this....the drum would be full and you'd tie it onto the truck and dump it at the local garbage dump.
This was a regular habit of my dad up until the 1980s.....when the locals are all got peppy about grass fires, and then it kinda got to be a bad thing. Yes, I can remember twenty-odd grass fires starting and having to rush out and douse them with a hose before they became issues.
So I can kinda identify with the Obama folks here. They probably had this habit from the Africa years and just kept up the trend....even when they were living in a one-million dollar estate. Course, he also probably didn't want anyone ever reading his fantasy letters to some lusty gal in Bossier City, or gazing at his credit card information which had details over his 1-900 chats with a service out of Detroit. So I can understand things like this.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Why I Hate Modular Furniture
This week....came the biggest five-star mess that I've ever had with modular furniture. Most of the time....it's personal modular that I end up with, and the pieces just don't match the drawing in the box. This time, it's slightly different and worse.I'm a government guy and we had to buy an entire office area new modular furniture. Naturally....the cheapest bidder won. This stuff was ordered or approved back in July and supposed to take 90 days for delivery and installation.
Well...the 'expert' from the company came over for an actual site visit and remeasured the area, and decided one particular horse-shoe area (four desks in such a shape) didn't really fit right and was four inches off. The government mandates that a 36-inch path must be in place and we only had 32 inches.....so he required a modification to the contract. This mod? Well....it took about a month to arrange this and the company was then looking at a longer delivery period. Oh, and there was supposed to be an allowable 36 inch path at the conclusion.
Well....after weeks and weeks of delay....we finally got the installation team into the Pentagon this week. Twenty pallets of gear. You haven't experienced life until you've dragged twenty pallets down various hallways and avoided hitting folks in fancy uniforms and suits. So we get to the end and here is the installation team.
The problems start to multiply. The drawing they have? A copy of a copy of a copy. You can't read much of anything.
They start assembling and about an hour into it.....nothing makes sense. They call the folks who did the sale and are responsible for the furniture. What the lady in Georgia didn't know....as she went negative with this installation team....was that I was standing in the room with them. She went negative and it was like attending a bunch of Catholics walking into a Baptist revival. Back and forth, negative help. About four minutes into this....she agreed to help to some minor degree....still not knowing that I was in the corner and hearing this whole conversation.
After 90 more minutes of screwing around....we've come to a quitting point. The picture? Out of nine potential desks there....they've assembled two completely. The rest are lacking pieces. On top of that....there were two additional desks which weren't delivered at all.
The assembly crew left, but promised to get their boss to call this company involved. I tried calling these folks but no one ever picked up my call. On top of that, I sent an email around the middle of the afternoon, but no one responded to that.
The curious thing is that money has yet to be paid out and by not helping much with the crew....the company is simply wasting time.
My boss then put the cherry on this cake....wanting to know precisely each piece missing. This means I'll spend 90 minutes today....going over the contract and trying to figure out how each piece fits. I'll be helped by my associate, the facility manager. Between the two of us....you can figure we'd charge around $40 an hour for anything we do. So far, this week, we will have invested around $1000 just playing tag and monitoring this entire mess. The measuring and piecing together of what is missing? That will consume $90 roughly. All because the idiots never simplified the stupid modular furniture and never delivered all the pieces.
Yes, I do hate modular furniture, and its for a good reason.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
A German Story
It's an interesting German story. One of the 'legends' of Germany is the Gorch Fock....a mast & sail boat that the German navy uses to train junior officers. It's a vessel out of the 1800s and routinely used today to take junior cadets out on long voyages and introduce them to the harsh environment of sailing. If you bring up the topic....everybody in Germany knows the Gorch Fock.
A number of weeks ago....there was a cadet to fall from a full mast to her death. Things kinda went downhill in a hurry when the Captain tried to order crew to continue the mast duties. Yes, you still have to climb to the top to rig up the masts. Well...the remaining crew took the climbing duty as unnecessary and too harsh. They rebelled and refused.
In essence.....a mutiny took place.
They ended up in a port, and the German navy ordered the Captain to fly out, and a crew was flown in to sail the boat back....minus the Captain and his student crew.
A number of folks came up to blast the German military....especially the Secretary of Defense....Von Guttenberg. It was thought that the leadership of the German military had allowed a number of things to occur. It was discovered that the instructor crew allowed boozing and various unauthorized activities to take place.
This week.....it came out that this female student that fell.....was severely overweight. She stood around 5'2" and weighed near 180 lbs. Based on US regulations....the max she could have weighed and been allowed to stay in the military would have been around 135 lbs at that height. She was basically 45 pounds overweight and likely the worst possible candidate to send forty feet up on a mast.
Why did the instructors allow her to remain onboard? No one has explained that. The folks who dumped on the chief of German defense? Well....they've kinda shut up now and avoiding any negative comments at all.
There are simple rules that the US military keeps in effect to ensure you don't have people of great weight trying to accomplish thing that are practically impossible. I'm guessing that the German navy probably had some rules but just chose to overlook most of those because they needed volunteers and were desperate to keep anyone who raised their hand.
A number of weeks ago....there was a cadet to fall from a full mast to her death. Things kinda went downhill in a hurry when the Captain tried to order crew to continue the mast duties. Yes, you still have to climb to the top to rig up the masts. Well...the remaining crew took the climbing duty as unnecessary and too harsh. They rebelled and refused.
In essence.....a mutiny took place.
They ended up in a port, and the German navy ordered the Captain to fly out, and a crew was flown in to sail the boat back....minus the Captain and his student crew.
A number of folks came up to blast the German military....especially the Secretary of Defense....Von Guttenberg. It was thought that the leadership of the German military had allowed a number of things to occur. It was discovered that the instructor crew allowed boozing and various unauthorized activities to take place.
This week.....it came out that this female student that fell.....was severely overweight. She stood around 5'2" and weighed near 180 lbs. Based on US regulations....the max she could have weighed and been allowed to stay in the military would have been around 135 lbs at that height. She was basically 45 pounds overweight and likely the worst possible candidate to send forty feet up on a mast.
Why did the instructors allow her to remain onboard? No one has explained that. The folks who dumped on the chief of German defense? Well....they've kinda shut up now and avoiding any negative comments at all.
There are simple rules that the US military keeps in effect to ensure you don't have people of great weight trying to accomplish thing that are practically impossible. I'm guessing that the German navy probably had some rules but just chose to overlook most of those because they needed volunteers and were desperate to keep anyone who raised their hand.
Friday, 4 February 2011
What Happens in Bama, Stays in Bama
Being from Bama....sometimes involves a great deal of pondering.
Yesterday....out of Goodwater, Bama....we had a shooting. The facts as of today? A case had been brought up in some local court, to be tried in a townhall courtroom......where the guy was accused of a domestic dispute. He'd been injured in a car accident prior to this and broke a hip....so naturally, he was hobbling around on two crutches. I would suspect that he had a few drugs to help kill the pain as well.
So the city judge came to a decision, which went against the guy.....and he was a might-bit upset. At this point, he started waving his two crutches around.
Facts are cloudy after this point. Some say he tried to reach for a gun. Some said that he was just waving the crutches around. But the one cop on the scene felt the situation was out of hand and tried to push the guy down.....then perceived him reaching for his weapon....and shot him once. Then as the guy went down.....shot a second time.
Both shots went into his gut but he appears to be in survivable condition. Folks around Goodwater are a bit upset, saying that the guy should have been tased instead of shot. Some are just upset about the second shot, saying the first one was justified and the second one wasn't.
State cops got called out and will have to sort this out. I'm guessing they'd rather this not turn into a big episode, but they probably will have to interview at least twenty folks and collect statements. My guess is that the guy will get another charge or two dumped on him but the court will feel sorry and just let him off the hook at the end.
The bottom line? Well....this all started with a domestic situation and if he hadn't argued with his wife....he'd never been dragged into city court, never been charged with anything, had his car accident, had the broke hip, waved any crutches around a court to threaten folks, or been shot by some city cop. The Bama morale of the story....always agree with your wife.
Yesterday....out of Goodwater, Bama....we had a shooting. The facts as of today? A case had been brought up in some local court, to be tried in a townhall courtroom......where the guy was accused of a domestic dispute. He'd been injured in a car accident prior to this and broke a hip....so naturally, he was hobbling around on two crutches. I would suspect that he had a few drugs to help kill the pain as well.
So the city judge came to a decision, which went against the guy.....and he was a might-bit upset. At this point, he started waving his two crutches around.
Facts are cloudy after this point. Some say he tried to reach for a gun. Some said that he was just waving the crutches around. But the one cop on the scene felt the situation was out of hand and tried to push the guy down.....then perceived him reaching for his weapon....and shot him once. Then as the guy went down.....shot a second time.
Both shots went into his gut but he appears to be in survivable condition. Folks around Goodwater are a bit upset, saying that the guy should have been tased instead of shot. Some are just upset about the second shot, saying the first one was justified and the second one wasn't.
State cops got called out and will have to sort this out. I'm guessing they'd rather this not turn into a big episode, but they probably will have to interview at least twenty folks and collect statements. My guess is that the guy will get another charge or two dumped on him but the court will feel sorry and just let him off the hook at the end.
The bottom line? Well....this all started with a domestic situation and if he hadn't argued with his wife....he'd never been dragged into city court, never been charged with anything, had his car accident, had the broke hip, waved any crutches around a court to threaten folks, or been shot by some city cop. The Bama morale of the story....always agree with your wife.
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